Another year comes to a close, and another year of gratuitous television show pirating is in the bag. Who wins the award for the most illicit views? According to numbers from TorrentFreak, Game of Thrones keeps the crown for the second year in a row by a hefty margin. At 5,900,000 downloads, it beats (fantastic) runner up Breaking Bad by almost two mil.

Really it should come as no surprise; single Game of Thrones episodes have snagged torrenting records on their own. Further down list are a few more random hits, including the always perplexing Big Bang Theory at number four. I mean, when is that show not on TV on at least three different channels?

So while BitTorrent proper is embarking on allkindsof projects and ad campaigns to promote its less seedy side, the numbers show that downloading TV is one of the protocol's most popular if not endorsed purpose. Go figure. Fortunately, some of the minds behind Game of Thronessee piracy as a compliment. Other folks maybe not so much. But I think we can all agree that, yes, GOT is pretty damn good, however you might be getting it. [TorrentFreak]